Hey guys! It's a new year and for the first post of the year I will be talking about a new product: the Nourish London Ceramide Moisture Boost Essence.

The Nourish Ceramide Moisture Boost Essence is your first skincare layer following cleansing and toning, before serums and moisturisers. It is designed to add an extra boost of moisture and to soften the skin in preparation for the rest of your routine. 

The Boost Essence contains hyaluronic acid, kale sprout extract (a common feature in Nourish Skincare products), probiotic minerals, ceramides, willow bark and trehalose. Together they help to provide nourishment whilst making the skin look radiant and plumped. The addition of willow bark also helps to exfoliate, decongest and balance the skin. It is meant to be particularly good for dehydrated, temperamental hormonal skin.

The Boost Essence comes packaged in a glass bottle that holds 100ml and it has a black flip cap with a small hole in the top to dispense the product. The serum itself is quite watery in consistency which is typical of an essence type product.

To use, you need to apply roughly a penny size amount of essence to the skin after cleansing and toning and gently pat into the skin. Once it has absorbed enough, continue with your serums and moisturisers. 

The Boost Essence absorbs into the skin so quickly and skin instantly feels softer and smoother. It also dries to a soft matte finish, so no shine but the skin still feels supple. 

I find that if you apply your serums too quickly after the essence, you can sometimes have issues with product coming off. Whether that's the essence of the serum is unknown, but you tend to feel tiny lumps of product rubbing away under your fingers. Whether this is all types of serum I am yet to determine, but it tends to happen to me when I use The Ordinary's Ascorbic Acid as a follow up to the essence which is admittedly quite oily in texture. Either way, waiting just a little bit longer for the essence to fully absorb tends to completely solve the problem!

I've now been using this essence since just before Christmas and it has been helping significantly in regards to keeping skin hydrated and moisturised, particularly during this colder weather. Additionally, I have mainly noticed that my skincare just seems to be working better. I apologise for the lack of imagination in that sentence but I'm genuinely struggling to word what I'm feeling here. When people use tinted moisturiser and describe their skin as "my skin but better", or "my lips but better" with a tinted lip balm? That. That's what I guess I'm trying to say. It's just that little extra that takes your routine from a good routine to a great routine. At least that's what I'm taking away from it here.

Another thing that I want to mention is that if your skin is ever feeling tight and dehydrated, using this is such a relief without adding any grease or shine. It instantly absorbs and comforts the skin, plumping and leaving a soft matte finish with no shine. Therefore, it's great to use both in the morning and the evening - even for those with oily skin. I'd actually go as far to say that this is a brilliant product for those with oily skin as it helps with shine without over-drying (and then your skin going the total opposite way to overcompensate, making things worse) or leaving any excess shine. Just the nice balance that you need.

It may be easy to hear about a product like this and ask, "do I really need another step in my skincare routine?" and if I was to answer honestly, I'd say no, you don't. However, I would continue by saying that this is one of those optional steps that just adds more and gets the most out of your existing products (I'd put this on a par with microneedling by it being an optional step that you don't need but is just really darn good). 

I'm using so many italics for emphasis in this post but I feel like it's justified with this one. I do recommend giving it a go, even if you're wondering why you'd need it (as long as you have the means, of course - prioritise the main components of your routine otherwise!).

If you would like to get your hands on your own bottle of Nourish Skincare's Ceramide Moisture Boost Essence then you can find it at Nourish Skincare and hopefully on websites that stock Nourish products in the future such as Sephora and Onlynaturals.

What are your thoughts on the Nourish Skincare Ceramide Moisture Boost Essence? Would you be willing to add an extra step to your routine? 

Let me know in the comments below!